They don't lose billions because some people hide annoying stuff that makes their pages esesstially unusable and have no extra benefit because ... I personally don't think this kind of online marketing actually works. I cannot imagine someone actually buying something because of some meaningless text snippet, a stupid blinking image or a video clip.

Do you really trust your personal opinion on this, versus literally an entire billion dollar industry which has an enormous incentive to get this right, and which thinks this as business DOES work?

The point is, they don't lose anything because of me hiding their ads.

There are other ways for advertisers to sneak into my world, but this kind of online advertisement is not one of them.

So very sorry (and depressed) to say, but there are some sound and scientifically based metrics that show that it does work. I know. You and I can't imagine it. Personally; I think that it can't possibly be bringing in as much money as they spend. But whatever.

I'm sure they do. This doesn't redeem the engineers working on it, in fact it damns them even further.

Lose? They have monopoly positions in their respective markets and we have little choice.

While I personally avoid FB and use DDG, most folks can't or aren't allowed to (no extensions).